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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28146807">Wedding Bands</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan'>navaan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tokyo Babylon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Case Fic, Dominance, Explicit Sexual Content, Extremely Dubious Consent, Haunting, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, M/M, Post-Canon, Power Play, Suicidal Thoughts, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, maybe the sakurazukamori cares who knows, possesive seishirou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:28:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,283</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28146807</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Subaru is about to solve a case and send on a ghost and it brings up all kinds of ghosts from his own closet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sakurazuka Seishirou/Sumeragi Subaru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Yuletide 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wedding Bands</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyspinners/gifts">ivyspinners</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Yuletide! I was so glad to get your TB request. I've been on a nostalgia binge since the new anime was announced. &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Subaru exits the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line early in the morning at the designated station. He’s closer to Saitama now than he’s to the center of the leviathan that is Tokyo. The station is full of people waiting for the train on the opposite platform - heading for Tokyo’s center. He's not the only one getting off here but he does stand out: A young man in jeans and a gray badly cut sweater with strangely colored eyes, walking up the stairs to the station and then down again the other side as he’s heading for the exit. He knows that eyes are following him, that some people are wondering what he's up to here in their quiet little suburb.</p><p>He can guess what they may be thinking but they can’t possibly guess what has called him here.</p><p>The streets out here are narrow and quiet and Subaru doesn’t have to look far to find the first traces of eerie stillness in the quiet. He doesn't have to walk far before he smells the change in the air, feels that slight crackling in the area's heartbeat that makes the hair on his arms stand on end. The supernatural is subtle only to those who have no experience with it.</p><p>He sighs under his breath when he sees that he has arrived at a little playground right on the edge of the small town. He knows that the forest starts behind the houses on the other side because he and Hokuto used to come to this stop on the line sometimes when she felt Subaru needed to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind for a bit. The school is not far away either.</p><p>Without a sound the swings are moving as if there's any wind to make them move - but there isn't.</p><p>Carefully reaching out with his own power, he walks towards them and says: "Hello."</p><p>Nothing stirs or makes a sound in return but just at the edge of his vision he can see her: A girl of maybe twelve with long black tresses hanging down over her shoulders, staring at him from intense gray eyes.</p><p>He doesn’t need to extend his senses, call upon his magic, to know she’s dead but unable to pass on.</p><p>"Mari?" he asks and her eyes give no sign of recognition.</p><p>Perhaps the ghost has forgotten the name a long time ago.</p><p>He sits down on one of the swings and sighs. If someone walked by he would wonder what the young man is doing on a children's playground - is he the sort of unemployed youth who has nothing better to do with his time or is he here to prey on children.</p><p>He nearly laughs at the thought but it gets stuck in his throat before it fully forms and he discards the thought and the creeping memory of strong long-fingered hands ghosting across his stomach that come with it. This isn’t about him or the shattered mirror of Subaru that <i>he</i> left behind.</p><p>"You're broken," the ghost says with the clear matter-of-fact voice of a child who knows more than the here and now and is speaking in the cold cutting voice of the beyond that only deceives those who haven’t learned to listen. </p><p>"Yes." There's no use denying it when the spirit can so clearly see it. It’s taken him a while to realize that being broken may not be a strength but it’s also not a weakness. If you’re shattered on the floor nothing can destroy you in just the same way anymore. Subaru knows it and it's been rippling through his magic for these past few years - the fearless revelation that he’s never going to be whole again but that perhaps that doesn’t matter at all. </p><p>"Why did you hurt Harumi?" he asks in a quiet voice.</p><p>He has also discovered that those who recognize the cracks in his veneer were usually the ones who were also broken. </p><p>Mari freezes and her form flickers at the name. It takes the ghost a moment to center itself and find its power to anchor itself. Then Mari looks at Subaru dead in the eyes. He can see the first hints of the void, the darkness bleeding into her eyes, threatening to catch her form and make the pain and violence accumulate into spiritual action.</p><p>He isn't worried. </p><p>He has wards woven into wards up around himself like an invisible barrier at all times these days even though it's much too late to properly protect himself against the true dangers out there in the world. There’s only one predator he needs to fear and Subaru knows there’s no longer any use in protecting himself against that one. </p><p>"Yoshimoto-sensei doesn't love her."</p><p>Subaru feels his stomach drop. He has put the facts together already about the abuse and the murder, about the violence and fear that has taken form as jealous ghost of a child who hadn't been allowed to ever be a carefree child.</p><p>"She's safe now," Subaru tells her and he isn't trying to make the lost soul understand or to offer her soul comfort. He understands the shadows in the light better than he used to. The logic of the dead can be vengeful and tied into the complex frame of human existence but often it’s simple: Better to kill the other girl than let her suffer the same fate - or kill the other girl because admitting that it had been abuse not love that had led to her own violent end was too much to bear... In the end it doesn’t matter which it is. It doesn’t change the duty Subaru has been taksed with.</p><p>The ghost falters for a moment - surprised maybe, </p><p>"She is?" The voice is trembling. Far away like it is coming from that place far beyond where it should be at rest.</p><p>"Safe, yes," Subaru repeats and sees her eyes focus on him as if he’s a curiosity.</p><p>"Your eyes are a weird color."</p><p>"So I've been told."</p><p>"What is that?"</p><p>She points.</p><p>He has started to form a complicated pattern with his fingers, drawing out the ying-yang energy residing in this place to open the ghosts eyes to her reality and send her on. But she doesn't mean the movement of his fingers or the magic that’s about to ensnare her. She means what is painted on the back of his hands, what she can see with her dead eyes even though most people can’t.</p><p>Red painful energy is flowing through the lines forming two stars. Some days it hurt badly.</p><p>He looked at the stars for a moment, trying to determine what piqued her interested.. </p><p>"My scars," he answers and perhaps he shouldn't have because whatever sliver of bond or magic she has picked up in his words it rears its head in vengefulness.</p><p>The ghost hovers closer. "You're here to hurt me. You're here to hurt <i>her</i>. Nobody is ever making it right. Nobody is ever making it better. Nobody wants to <i>see</i>."</p><p>Her voice is rising to a crescendo of hurt and pain and the anger of the murdered girl who must have been buried close-by. Subaru had never figured out where exactly or he would have already pointed the police at her remains..</p><p>"You're like me. Broken. Touched. Why do you live?" the ghost shrieks.. </p><p>Subaru kept his voice calm. "Because that's my burden."</p><p>He finally started a chant, while the ghost lashed out, a gust of raw power rising with her pained screams, rushing over him like thunder. He’s not going to hurt her - poor lost soul that she is, he is just going to bind her and then help her along until the darkest parts of her grief and anger bleed away so that she can find her peace.</p><p>She gets right in his space suddenly, her form growing and stretching into a monstrous deformed mess of energy that has a face with holes for eyes and a mouth that is a gaping maw of darkness howling with the injustice of it all.</p><p>Her hands touch his and he recoils but something touches her in her vengeful rage and for a moment her eyes are a child's eyes again - sad and confused and scared - before the anger comes back and consumes her. He can reach her, he thinks, even though the maelstrom is already tearing at him, blood is running down his cheek and the pain of all the energy she's throwing at him makes him suffocate.</p><p>"What are those?" she shrieks pointing at the stars and Subaru isn't naive enough to focus on her question now - not anymore. She has recognized in him what she's been killing other abuse victims for and it takes all of his will not to think: "I could let go and let her kill me, slip away into oblivion. Fearless. Like a mirror that’s already broken and won’t ever be whole again."</p><p>"Wedding bands," another voice says and despite the clear morning light filling the streets it seems to speak right from the shadow, so dark it cuts the air like an icy blade, chills Subaru to the core.</p><p>Recognition is the blade that cuts deepest.</p><p>He's distracted enough that the ghost gets through his defensis just as it howls angrily. "This isn't love," she shrieks and Subaru can hold on barely because he doesn't want to obliterate her, only hold on until...</p><p>It’s over then.</p><p>Just as suddenly as it had started.</p><p>The piercing cry of a bird of prey, then shadows rush over them, somewhere glass shatters and Subaru is pushed a few steps until his back hits the post of the swings hard and the breath is knocked out of him.</p><p>The ghost is gone. The screaming has stopped. Magic is settling back into the cracks of reality, balancing out the world.</p><p>Only silence and the smell of cigarette smoke lingers.</p><p>Finally he looks up to meet the mismatched eyes and tries to steel himself.</p><p>Seishirou is standing only a few steps from him, cigarette in hand, watching him intently before he drags on his cigarette, face frozen in that blank mask of boredom, as he watches Subaru from his one good eye.</p><p>"You need to be more careful," he admonishes gently with only a hint of that Seishirou of old in the tone, the obvious hint of concern that Seishirou insists isn't there and can never be there for real. </p><p>"You shouldn't have done that."</p><p>They stared at each other blankly for a while, Subaru's muscles tense, before the real dance begins - this one the real fight that Subaru knows he has in many ways already lost. Seishirou makes a blindingly fast step forward and grabs one of his hands to pull it towards his lips to touch them to the stars edged into his hands..</p><p>Wedding bands, Seishirou had only seconds before called them. A knot forms in Subaru's throat as he watches Seishirou trace the line of the star on his left hand with his kisses, a mockery of love and tenderness that Subaru knows all too well isn’t there..</p><p>He pulls his hand free.</p><p>"You're cute as ever," Seishirou praises in that fake-sweet tone he only falls back into when he wants to keep Subaru off-balance. He throws away the cigarette,</p><p>"You're not," Subaru says angrily. He looks after the stub wishing for a cigarette himself.</p><p>"Oh, but you thought I was cute back then? Didn’t you?"</p><p>Subaru ignores it, uses his sleeve to try and brush the blood from his cheek.</p><p>But Seishirou isn't done with him yet - and Subaru knows this new iteration of the game much better than he ever understood the first. Lips trace the cut on his cheek this time, while hands grab his hard, pulling him in close.</p><p>He leans in too, smells the mingled scent of blood and smoke and expensive eau de cologne that he misses even when he hates himself for it. </p><p>"It's been a while," Seishirou says without inflection that would hint at emotion.</p><p>"Yes," Subaru admits and hates that he’s so weak to it, that it’s been long enough for him to <i>miss</i> this.</p><p>"Let me take you home," Seishirou suggests and says <i>take you</i> with just enough emphasis to state his real, less considerate intentions.</p><p>"Yes," he agrees. </p><p>The stars on the back of his hand burn.</p><p>He can resist. But the truth is there was never anywhere to run to, nowhere to hide.</p><p>Seishirou takes him by the hand and pulls him against his body. Subaru shivers, can smell the ozone and blood of Seishirou’s magic even before the sweet smell of cherry blossoms adds to it and pink petals swirl around him in a whirlwind of raw power. </p><p>It grows and roars, from the endless shadow branches reach for his cheek, petals settle against the little cut. </p><p>First it’s soothing, then it hurts. </p><p>Seishirou flicks them away with one snap of the fingers, watching Subaru all the while with a predator-like glean in the eyes and then he makes one step back, pulling Subaru along through the petals and the shadow into darkness and back out the other end into a room.</p><p>Subaru’s room.</p><p>“The tree’s still hungry,” Seishirou says neutrally. “The little ghost wasn’t as tasty a morsel as you would have been.”</p><p>Subaru ignores the comment.</p><p>Seishirou tells him so every time.</p><p>He threatens sometimes.</p><p>Teases at other times.</p><p>It’s always a terrible reminder that Hokuto’s soul resides somewhere in that blood hungry tree.</p><p>“Is this where you live now?” Seishirou asks and grabs Subaru by the chin, perhaps realizing that he shouldn’t let Subaru contemplate the tree for too long. “It’s bleak, Subaru. You need to take care of yourself.”</p><p>The words are spoken with cold seriousness and yet are nothing but mockery.</p><p>“It’s a room,” Subaru answers. He barely has any personal items. He cares very little for aesthetics. Hokuto had been the one who made him care. He shrugs, attempts to pull himself away from Seishirou’s grip.</p><p>This too is a game to the predator and Subaru knows it, knows his assigned role.</p><p>He doesn’t fight when he’s pulled back against Seishirou, when his chin is grabbed once more and he’s pulled into a punishing kiss that’s hard and unyielding just like Seishirou’s heart. </p><p>“Stop,” Subaru says, steeling himself. </p><p>He knows he’s not going to resist too much.</p><p>Seishirou enjoys it too much when he does.</p><p>Even though the Sakurazuamori would deny “enjoying” anything.</p><p>He thinks Seishirou will force him towards the bedroom now, but in one quick sweep Seishirou pulls the legs out from under him, he’s swept up in his arms like a bride on the wedding day and can do very little but stare up at him with wide eyes.  </p><p>Seishirou looks down at him with that cold, blank stare that makes him so different from the man who Subaru fell in love with so long ago, the Seishirou who never really existed. </p><p>Next moment Subaru is dumped over the back of the leather couch and all air is knocked from his lungs yet again. </p><p>Seishirou looms over him, a shadow with intense eyes and the kind of stare that is analytical more than anything. He takes the time to slip his arms from the black trench coat and toss it carelessly onto the armchair before he swings himself over the back of the sofa too catching himself with his hands to both sides’ of Subaru’s face, effectively trapping him with his body. </p><p>“I’m not running,” Subaru felt the need to state.</p><p>For a moment as long as two frantic heartbeats Seishirou studies him coldly, staring down as if he’s trying to read what’s written on Subaru’s soul. </p><p>
  <i>Does he want to know if he’s written into every cell? Don’t the marks he left on me suffice?</i>
</p><p>Then Seishirou leans down to capture his mouth and kiss him - not the same cold, hard kiss as before. It’s deep and probing and hot this time. He knows just how to slide his tongue against Subaru’s to make him whine a little.</p><p>“Good,” Seishirou praises. “You still want me.”</p><p>Subaru tries to catch his breath and look away, but Seishirou holds his face with one hand, one of his wrists with the other and presses just a little too hard for comfort. The stars start to hurt, become searing hot like fire, until Subaru wants to cry out in pain but only bites his lips to stop himself.</p><p>“Say it,” Seishirou commands.</p><p>“I want you.”</p><p>“No,” Seishirou says with narrowed eyes and his gaze is intense enough this time to be easily mistaken for emotion, “<i>say it</i>.”</p><p>“I’m yours,” he says obediently. “Always yours.”</p><p>“Good,” Seishirou says and kisses him again, hot and demanding until Subaru’s lips tingle and his jaw aches and then his hands are grabbed, wrists held down on the cushions. “Never forget.”</p><p>He can’t forget ever. Even when he wants to more than anything. But never less than when Seishirou’s hands are on him, stripping away his clothes, guiding Subaru’s hands to his own, so they can open the buttons together.</p><p>It’s part of possession to give him agency enough to feel like this is his choice.</p><p>Even when it’s Seishirou who reaches for Subaru’s left hand and puts it on himself, guides his fingers in just the right way to make himself hard and ready. He takes much less time to open Subaru up and prepare him, even though when Subaru dares to look up he can see that intent, hungry look turned on him, taking in every second of his movements, ever moan, every gasp, until his back arcs of the sofa when Seishirou brushes his fingers against that sweet, sweet spot…</p><p>The fingrs withdraw quickly, while Subaru still sees white spots dance in front of his eyes, so that Seishirou can push into him, too quick and carless to be comforting. But Subaru cries out in painful pleasure anyway.</p><p>He buries his face in Seishirou’s neck and hears a soft chuckle, soft whispers of praise. Hears the unspoken, “I taught you so well.”</p><p>It’s enough for here and now.</p><p>Enough to feel heat rise in his body.</p><p>He knows it’s not the love he seeks but it’s the thing he can have.</p><p>It’s enough to feel Seishirou push in and out of him in a rhythm that allows Subaru his own pleasure, while Seishirou grips his hands and kisses the marks, making the stars glow with his magic until Subaru can’t say if he’s crying out in pain or pleasure.</p><p>Perhaps it’s both.</p><p>Perhaps it doesn’t matter when he falls apart into a mess of moans and orgasmic bliss.</p><p>“Mine,” Seishirou whispers, quickening his pace on the hunt for his own climax. He folds Subaru’s legs up until he thinks he’ll break and he doesn’t mind in the slightest.</p><p>In the end they are both sticky messes and Seishirou, sides a hand across his sweaty brow before he kisses him and strokes his hair as if he’s his favorite pet.</p><p>“Sleep, rest,” he whispers and Subaru knows there’s magic involved. His wards are up but he decides to let them down enough for the spell to put him down.</p><p>Seishirou could kill him easily like this, sleeping in his arms.</p><p>Subaru wouldn’t mind all that much.</p><p>“Next time,” Seishirou whispers, “I think I should have you on your knees.”</p><p>Next time.</p><p>He’ll wake and live and the game will go on.</p><p>As if Seishirou doesn’t want to let go.</p><p>As if he would mind if it ends.</p><p>He holds on to that thought as he drifts into unconsciousness and restless sleep.</p>
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